1865 Mullan Map of the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia

This the 1865 Mullan - Freyhold map of the American Northwest. It shows the territories of Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Dakota and Nebraska, and the State of Oregon in completion, and portions of California, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, Colorado, Utah and Nevada. The lithographed map - with hand wash color to distinguish the territories from one another - is beautifully executed and detailed. Carl Wheat esteemed this 'very fine' map so well that he chose it for the frontispiece of the fifth volume of Mapping the Transmississippi West. In discussing Freyhold, in particular, Wheat rhapsodizes:

Edwin (sic) Freyhold, who seems to have been responsible for the actual drawing of the topography, was an unrivaled expert in this type of work. His penned originals are almost unbelievably delicate, and must be examined with a powerful magnifying glass to be appreciated.

Indeed, the map's details are superbly drafted and lithographed, with clear, legible typography and beautifully hachured mountains. The map, and the guide accompanying it, was intended to aid and encourage hopeful emigrants to the new territories of the northwest, particularly prospectors. The map relies heavily on data arising from Mullan's tenure as superintendent of construction for the northern military wagon road running from Walla Walla to Fort Benton on the upper Milk River, and indeed Wheat specifically praises the detail of its trails: Mullan's road is shown in its several variants, including Mullan' proposed (and rejected) route to Walla-Walla via Fort Laramie. Another route following the Yellowstone River west and crossing the mountains via Beaver Head Valley is indicated to the south of the Mullan road. Well-established U.S. Mail routes are shown in the southern part of the map.

Mullan's Road

Mullan's experience with the Northwest begins with what was thought to have been a fool's errand. He was assigned to Isaac Stevens' survey of potential railroad routes across the Pacific Northwest. The project was supported by then Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, who operated on the assumption that no such route would be found (thus forcing Congress to identify and fund a southern transcontinental route, to the benefit of the slave-holding states.) While a railroad would not swiftly manifest as a result of these inauspicious beginnings, Mullan would be tasked with the production of a military route connecting Walla-Walla with the Missouri River, and in this he was successful. This map benefits from Mullan's first-hand exploration throughout the project, including even the route via steamboat from St. Joseph, Missouri to Fort Union along the Missouri River, his extensive surveys along the Milk River, and his travels and surveys in the Rockies and the Bitterroot Mountains. The map shows both the Cadotte Pass and the gentler, wagon-friendly 'Mullan's Pass,' which would ultimately be selected for the northern wagon route through the mountains when the route was finally approved for construction in 1855. The military wagon road was eventually completed - despite armed resistance by native Americans, and intense political wrangling in Washington, D.C. - in 1860.

Gold in Them There Hills

During the course of the construction of the military wagon road in the passage through the Bitterroot Mountains, Mullan's crew discovered gold. The map indicates the presence of gold there, as well as the other new territories shown. As such it is one of the earliest works to detail gold discoveries in the west outside of California and Nevada. The map identifies coal, copper, silver and gold mines throughout Oregon, Washington, Montana and Idaho, including very prominently the 'Owhyhee Silver Mines' of the lattermost territory.

The First Map to Name Wyoming

This map is one of the first, if not the first maps to show and name the Wyoming territory, and the first to show it correctly. (A transitional state of Mitchell's atlas map of the United States marked the border in late 1865; Johnson's 'map of Nebraska, Dakota, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming,' was printed in 1866 despite being frequently identified as its Wyoming-less 1865 state.) Wyoming would not actually be made a territory until 1868, but as Wheat puts it, 'the idea of Wyoming' took curious hold in early 1865 when it was first proposed that January by Ohio Representative James M. Ashley.

Failed James M. Ashley 1865 Bill to Create Wyoming Territory

In January of 1865, Representative James M. Ashley of Ohio introduced a bill to the 38th Congress for the creation of a provisional Wyoming territory. No one knows with certainty why Ashley chose to name the new territory Wyoming, but many speculate that it may be a reference to Pennsylvania's Wyoming Valley, near where Ashely was born. In any case, in Ashley's version of the bill, Wyoming extended eastward as far as 25th meridian from Washington (102°W from Greenwich), to including the Black Hills of South Dakota and the Nebraska Panhandle, but omitted other lands in Idaho and Utah that were ultimately incorporated into the map. The bill died in committee later that year and, although the idea of a 'Wyoming Territory' was reintroduced as 'Lincoln' in bills dating to 1866 and 1867, it was not organized into a Territory until 1868.

Publication History and Census

The map was printed in 1865 to accompany Mullan's 'Miners and Travelers' Guide to Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado. Via the Missouri and Columbia Rivers.' OCLC lists thirteen examples of the separate map in institutional collections. The book, though widely available digitally and via microfiche, is held in perhaps ten institutional collections. The map is scarce on the market.